The Deichtorhallen Hamburg is presenting a major exhibition on Otto Dix (1891-1969) and his influence on art up to the present day until April 1, 2024. For the first time, Dix's oeuvre from the period of the Nazi dictatorship, a time in which some of his works were considered "degenerate", will also be comprehensively presented. The focus is on the artistic effects of political censorship, adaptation and political iconography with reference to contemporary art.
On the one hand, the exhibition makes visible the changes in cultural and societal signs in the reception of Dix's oeuvre, but also shows the great fascination that his work exerts on around 50 of the most renowned contemporary artists worldwide. The selected artists include Georg Baselitz, John Currin, Lucian Freud, Alice Neel, Catherine Opie, Cindy Sherman and Kara Walker.
Otto Dix, Self-Portrait with Palette in front of a Red Curtain, 1942, oil on wood, Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, acquired with the support of the Ernst von Siemens Kunststiftung and the Wüstenrotstiftung, authorized by the Otto Dix Stiftung, Vaduz © VG Bild-Kunst Bonn, 2023
The first focus of the exhibition, curated by Dr. Ina Jessen, concentrates on Dix's only supposedly apolitical work from the Nazi era. Based on Otto Dix's (1891-1969) radical and provocative works of the 1920s, which are still popular today, an oeuvre was created from 1933 onwards that was far less offensively socio-critical in its pictorial language: the previously striking images of society were transformed after 1933 into partly subversive, partly subtle forms of contemporary criticism. War scenarios and socio-critical milieus were replaced primarily by landscape depictions, commissioned portraits and, from 1937, Christian allegorical motifs.
Alice Neel, Audrey McMahon, 1940 © Estate of Alice Neel, Courtesy Aurel Scheibler
Otto Dix's work created during the Nazi era has so far occupied a secondary position in the exhibition and research landscape. The exhibition DIX AND THE PRESENT is dedicated to filling this gap. In order to understand Dix's landscapes, portraits and Christian subjects in the context of his time, the exhibition places the painter, his work and his professional career in the artistic and political context of the Weimar Republic, National Socialism and the period shortly after the end of the war.
The second focus of both the exhibition and the catalog concentrates on the artistic reception of Otto Dix in terms of subject matter, political iconography, style, technique and genre.
Artists in the exhibition
Marina Abramović, Kader Attia, Ernie Barnes, Yael Bartana, Georg Baselitz, Monica Bonvicini, Marc Brandenburg, Thorsten Brinkmann, Glenn Brown, John Currin, Tacita Dean, Otto Dix, Martin Eder, Nicole Eisenman, Zeng Fanzhi, Lucien Freud, Falk Gernegroß, Adrien Ghenie, Nan Goldin, Simone Haack, Kati Heck, Almut Heise, Simin Jalilian, Anselm Kiefer, York der Knoefel, Friedrich Kunath, Stéphane Mandelbaum, Esko Mannikkö & Pekka Turunen, Paul McCarthy, Bod Mellor, Gianni Motti, Ron Mueck, Alice Neel, Meriele Neudecker, Catherine Opie, Nicolas Party, Grayson Perry, Juan Miguel Pozo, Paula Rego, Faith Ringgold, Julian Rosefeldt, Anne Laure Sacriste, Cindy Sherman, Katharina Sieverding, Zandile Tshabalala, Werner Tübke, Kara Walker, Martin Weinhold, Tsai Yi-Ting, Tobias Zielony, Miron Zownir.
September 30, 2023 to April 1, 2024
www.deichtorhallen.de
